Post Your Questions for Imelda Staunton
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- Imelda Staunton played Queen Elizabeth II in the last two series of The Crown, capping a career that began with a film debut in Bill Douglas's 1986 historical epic Comrades and spans Chicken Run (2000), Vera Drake (2004), Pride (2014), and the Downton Abbey and Paddington film franchises.
- Staunton's performance as a 1950s cleaner secretly performing illegal abortions in Vera Drake earned her a Bafta, the Venice Film Festival best actress prize, and an Oscar nomination.
- Her turn as Dolores Umbridge in two Harry Potter films saw her make "a pink cardigan almost as frightening as Voldemort," and she has voiced Aunt Lucy in all three Paddington films and Lady Maud Bagshaw in the first two Downton Abbey films.
- Staunton holds five Olivier Awards from 15 nominations, with a stage career beginning in 1982's The Beggar's Opera and encompassing Follies, Guys and Dolls, Sweeney Todd, and Hello Dolly!.
- She was awarded a DBE in 2024, and her latest film & Sons reunites her with Pride co-star Bill Nighy, who plays a famously difficult novelist summoning his family.
- The Guardian is inviting reader questions, with submissions due by 6pm on Wednesday 5 August; the best will be put to Staunton and published in Film & Music.
Why it matters: Readers have until 6pm on 5 August to submit questions for one of Britain's most decorated screen and stage actresses — a performer whose six-decade career bridges an Oscar-nominated 1950s abortion drama, a Harry Potter villain scarier than Voldemort in a pink cardigan, and the final two series of The Crown. Five Oliviers, a Venice prize, a Bafta, and a 2024 DBE sit behind the invite.
